The New Student's Reference Work/Emigration

Emigra′tion means going out of one country into another, and generally to a faraway part of the world. In the country which people leave they are generally called emigrants or wanderers out; in that in which they settle they are usually styled immigrants. Jacob and his family were immigrants into Egypt, and their descendants became emigrants from that country when they went to inherit the promised land. Among the main causes which have led to emigration at different times are the pursuit of wealth, the pressure of over-population at home and discontent, political, social or religious. The Spaniards came to America to get gold. Many of the Greeks in old times emigrated because of over-population. Political and social discontent accounts in great measure for the large numbers of Irish emigrants. Forced service in the army is one great cause of German emigration. Religious persecution led to the emigration of the Huguenots from France to England and of the Puritans from England to North America. At the end of the 15th century the opening of the passage to India round the Cape of Good Hope by Vasco da Gama and the discovery of America by Columbus at once brought to the eyes of Europeans new lands, and then modern emigration began. The Spaniards left their motherland to go to the West Indies and to Central and South America; the Portuguese to Brazil, the East Indies, India and Ceylon; the Dutch to the East and West Indies, Guiana, New York and the Cape of Good Hope; the French to Mauritius and Bourbon, the West Indies, Louisiana, India and Canada; the English to the West Indies, North America and, later, to India, Australia and South Africa. European emigration has been, greatest in the 19th century, because the population has increased so enormously. Europeans are naturally attracted to counties of like climate, which have not already an over-large population and in which the chances of gaining wealth are good. For these reasons the greatest emigration has been to the United States, Australia, South Africa and the temperate parts of South America, for example, the Argentine Republic.